Guilt
by MarigoldStevens
Summary: No, this was not Sword Boy killing Thresh. This was the Capital and the Games killing Thresh. My version of the fight between Thresh and Cato. One-shot.


**I always wanted to know how the fight between Cato and Thresh went down, and this is how I imagined it. Be warned, it gets kind of graphic and very dark, and it's not exactly a happy story (but I take it you expected that). So, enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own the Hunger Games. **

He never planned to be a murderer. He never wanted his name intertwined with another's who's life he had wrongfully took, because murder was always wrong to him because it just made things worse. Like now.

The rain was blurring his vision, soaking the wheat, but still he pushed through, running literally for his life. Sword Boy had been tracking him for days, and it seemed that he had finally caught up to him. Knife Girl's eyes still haunt him. He remembers every crack and crevice he felt on his fingertips from the stone he held, before he smashed it on her skull. He could barely see, his eyes were full of red anger. Knife Girl had been screaming for Sword Boy, but when he dropped her to the ground she fell silent. Then Fire Girl tells him that no, Knife Girl did not kill Rue. And he feels guilt.

Guilt for killing a girl for a crime she did not commit.

_But she would've had she had the chance._

Guilt for ripping her away from this world when she was so small, fragile as he held her up, like Rue.

_No telling how many innocent children she'd tortured, laughing as blood ran down their faces._

Guilt that welled up inside when he ran and heard Sword Boy begging for her to stay with him, to hold on, crying for her to not leave.

_Sword Boy deserved it, he'd destroyed plenty of lives. _

Guilt that would not go away when he heard her cannon shot and Sword Boy's sobs.

And now he was getting his fate.

"Think you can outrun me Thresh? Really? I can go on forever! I WILL go on forever! Where you running to, huh Thresh? Answer me! THRESH!" Sword Boy was closer now, his screaming and cursing mixing with the heavy rain. Thresh kept on running, because stopping meant certain death. Stopping meant Sword Boy and being forced to remember Knife Girl, stopping meant giving up and failing Rue-

His feet slid out from under him as something heavy hit the back of his head, his face landing on the muddy ground. He rolled over to see a truly terrifying sight: Sword Boy, clutching a (what else?) sword and grinning madly, surrounded by the lightning crackling sky.

"Going somewhere?" Sword Boy jeered, raising his sword high. But Thresh was prepared. He rolled over just as Sword Boy brought it down on the ground, jumping up and grabbing the other boy's neck.

_Are you really planning on killing another?_

Is there even an option?

_Do you want his eyes to be burned in your eyelids forever, like Knife Girl's? _

But these few precious seconds of contemplation was all the other boy needed as he twisted around, elbowing Thresh roughly in the stomach. Thresh removed his hands from the other boy's neck, finally looking into Sword Boy's eyes and wishing he hadn't.

He remembered hearing snippets of conversations from giggly Capital girls as the tributes had passed. They gushed over Sword Boy. _What beautiful blue eyes. _

But they were not beautiful now, and he was not the Capital girl's Sword Boy. They were purely insane, the pupils too big. They were, in true sense of the word, scary. They did not belong on the face of a handsome seventeen year old. They belonged on a rabid dog.

"I believe you took something of mine," Sword Boy said, deadly quiet as he reached back and plunged his sword deep into Thresh's stomach.

Pain. Lots of pain. Rue, he saw Rue. His mother. His grandmother. His sister. His brothers. He hoped they weren't watching as he landed on his back.

"Take the backpack," Thresh gasped, hands scrambling at his middle as Sword Boy brought it down on his shoulder. An inhuman howl rang throughout the sky, Thresh realized with a jolt it was him.

"I DON'T WANT THE DAMN BACKPACK!" Sword Boy's face was not handsome anymore, not something to gush and squeal over. It was red and twisted and angry and so sad and frustrated. "I WANT CLOVE! GIVE HER BACK!" as he brought the bloody weapon down again-his thigh this time-he hoped that Sword Boy's family wasn't watching either. Was his mother crying? Did he have a little sister who was being ushered from the room at this very moment, hands covering her wide eyes, trying to prevent her from seeing her big brother like this: a monster?

No matter how many Sword Boy had slain, he could not help but feel that he was not truly a bad person. Truly bad people did not carry this much grief over the death of one. No, this was not Sword Boy killing Thresh. This was the Capital and the Games killing Thresh.

"What makes you think you have a right?" he was in his face now, eyes crazed and teeth bared. Thresh wished he'd go away, let him die in peace. Let him die thinking of his family and Rue. But Sword Boy was not cooperating. "What gives you the right to take the life of the one person I care about? What gives you the right to kill her? WHY DID YOU TAKE HER FROM ME? !" the knife was in his arm now. He faintly heard that howl again as he felt his heart beating loudly in his ears.

"It's funny," Thresh began quietly, knowing that with each word he was only promising himself a more excruciating death "how you call him Lover Boy, yet you are the same," he mused, his eyelids drooping. Sword Boy's teeth were too pointed, like a wild beast, not a boy.

"Oh, yes, that is funny," Sword Boy commented, absentmindedly running a finger over the blood dripping off of his blade. "Want to know the difference though?" he raised an eyebrow at a generally unresponsive Thresh. "He still has his girl," he finished darkly. And that's when Thresh knew in that long, awful second, that Sword Boy had really and truly snapped as his eyes darkened and the lightening flashed behind him and he had somehow managed to get blood streaked through his light hair. If Thresh believed in the devil, he would've looked identical to Sword Boy at this moment.

Suddenly a stone was slammed into his skull-where had that come from?-and all he could hear was a pounding drumbeat and the rain as his sight disappeared for a second and was replaced with a blinding white light, only to be brought back with Sword Boy kneeling in front of him, drenched in his blood and laughing with red pointed teeth. He hoped Sword Boy's little sister wasn't watching. He hoped his wasn't either.

Thresh found it was much harder to speak now, but he knew he must choke out those words, to try and make things sort of alright before he died. _I'm sorry. _

Sword Boy glared at him. "Oh yes, because apologizing will bring her back," he hissed, opening his jacket. "But you know what will help?" and then Thresh saw the knifes lined up and down the inside of his jacket, glinting in the moonlight. "If I kill you like she would want," he spat, pulling out a delicate thin one. "This was her favorite," he said causally, running the thin blade down Thresh's cheek. "I figured it could revenge it's rightful owner well, don't you?" and he grinned that bloody grin.

Pain. Pain and screaming. Howling as Sword Boy laughed. No, not Sword Boy. He was not Sword Boy anymore. Thresh had realized his fatal mistake. Sword Boy had died when Knife Girl had, and had been replaced with a monster with only one goal: revenge.

Images swam in his sight as he faded in and out. Rue whistling, jumping around the orchards. Too too tiny, too breakable. His sister laughing and clutching his leg as his brothers smiled. His mother baking and patting his back. His grandma holding his hand and giving a papery kiss to his cheek. Knife Girl screaming as her temple collapsed. Sword Boy not being Sword Boy and being Cato, human boy with human feelings as he clutched her body and pleaded.

_I'm sorry_ he thought as he got one last glimpse of what was previously Sword Boy hacking at what used to be Thresh's right arm before he faded into darkness.

**Review please.**


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